


Masterwork Theater Presents: Best of Republic City's Urban Legends

by magicgenetek



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Creepypasta, Gen, Radio, Urban Legends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-18
Updated: 2012-06-18
Packaged: 2017-11-08 00:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/437121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicgenetek/pseuds/magicgenetek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tune in for some of Republic City's scariest stories, hosted by none other than Pro-bending's famous announcer, Shiro Shinobi! Thrilling tales of haunted dolls, Water Tribe monsters, and car rides that no one will forget are being told tonight! Don't forget to listen in!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Masterwork Theater Presents: Best of Republic City's Urban Legends

Hello, everyone! Once again I, Shiro Shino, will be your host for Masterwork Theater, where we tell tales from all over the globe! Today we’ll be focusing on the scariest stories, the most terrifying tales, the most loathsome legends found in Republic City! Keep your seatbelts on, ladies and gentlemen, and shoo any little children out of the room.

Our first story begins at a local Satomobile dealership. A young man, freshly paid, comes upon one of the most beautiful Satomobiles he’s ever seen! Aware that this model is expensive, he asks the owner about it, and finds out that it’s being sold for the amazing price of 10,000 yuans! Thanking his luck, the man buys the Satomobile and drives it home, then starts washing it so he can show off to his neighbors.

But! As he starts to wash it, he notices something strange about the water dripping down. It’s a watery pink. He checks the Satomobile frantically, because if the paint is washing off, he’s going straight back to the dealer to complain! But the paint is fine! So he shrugs and goes back to washing.

Later, he’s driving the car around when he notices two lights in the rearview mirror. He turns to check on the car behind him, but there isn’t one. But there’s still two sickly green lights in his mirror.

He continues his routine of washing the car and driving it, and grows used to the fact that the water that drips off the car is an increasingly bright shade of pink. The green lights in the mirror are unnerving, but it’s worth it for a beautiful car like he’s got.

At least, until one night, as he’s driving in the rain, he looks in the mirror and sees a green-goggled Equalist staring back at him. He slams on his breaks under a bridge and leaps out and checks thoroughly in the back that there’s no one there, and there isn’t. But then, he realizes, something even worse is happening. Rainwater is dripping onto the Satomobile, but what’s dripping off is blood.

The man drives back to the Satomobile store, ignoring the green lights digging into his neck all the way there, and demands answers from the salesman. The salesman explains that, two years ago, the Satomobile had been found at a murder scene: an Equalist had drowned in the bone-dry back seat and the waterbender had bled out all over the leather steering wheel. 

For our second story of suspense, we take on a tale that’s said to have come from the Fire Nation! 

Once, during the Hundred Year War, Fire Lord Ozai started kidnapping benders and putting them in elaborate prisons. They weren’t even allowed to move, for fear that they’d bend their way out. And in their desperation, one bender asked the spirits for help, and they gave it to her. In exchange, she lost her beautiful hair, and it was replaced with grey and knotted string.

That night, the waterbender made noise to summon the guards, then turned them all into puppets. Their hearts, their eyes were beads, and she controlled them until she escaped. When she left, the guards died, because no man could live with a heart of wood.

The bender fled and reveled in her freedom. But with freedom came a growing wish for vengeance. She couldn’t make her way into the heart of the Fire Nation, so she created a home in a small Fire Nation village. People visiting the village would vanish, only to be seen at night with glittering obsidian for eyes. The town lived in fear of dolls, especially when they appeared on their doorsteps with the face of a loved one.

The doll bender would challenge visitors to make a better doll than she could. They would try, and in response, she’d turn them into dolls.

One day, the Avatar and his companions came to this village, and the doll bender challenged them to a duel. If she won, they would help her kill the Fire Lord; if they lost, they would become her loyal doll servants. One by one, she took them under her control, until only she and Grandmaster Katara were left. But Grandmaster Katara had a little water from the Moon Spirits left, and she flung it onto the doll bender, saying that it would suit the doll bender as her dress. She said that the moonlight would be the dollbender’s hair, and that the gnarled willow they were fighting beside would be her flesh. And the two beads Katara wore in her hair would be her eyes.

The doll bender cursed as she turned into a doll, Katara having discovered her weakness, and Katara threw her into a well so that she’d never threaten anyone again. And there was no sign of her. But…

They say that when former Fire Lord Ozai died of a heart attack, they found a small doll with yarn for hair and blue beads for eyes at his bedside, and that his heart was as hard as wood.

For our third story, we’ll be looking at a recent immigrant to Republic City – the wendigo. The wendigo, in Northern Water Tribe tradition, is a monster created when one human cannibalizes another. Stories about wendigoes have only recently reached Republic City, and this one is a particularly spooky one!

It lurks around the Council building, the beads that adoring it’s three tails jangling when it moves. It’s said to have claws so thick and strong that when it grabs you, your feet are dragged along so fast that they get burned to ashes. People inside the council building hear the screams at night: “Oh, my fiery feet! My burning feet of fire!” One time, someone saw a lobbyist in a hat and coat, and went over to greet him, but when he pulled off the man’s hat, all that was there was ashes.

And then there’s when you realize when you’re being watched. You’re walking through the halls of the building and no one is around. The radio’s gone dead. And out of the corner of your eye you spot him: Councilman Tarrlo-

Oh, excuse me, folks! It seems there’s been a mix up in the scripts! That was a quick preview for our upcoming program about political satire in Republic City. Councilman Tarrlok does not actually eat people, nor is he a spirit of greed, gluttony and famine. In fact, the worst the average citizen can expect from him is for him to toss them in front of rabid paparazzi to make them support his task force.

And speaking of reporters, and since we’re out of scripts, I suppose I’ll have to tell a story of my own. I used to be a reporter myself, and a friend of mine specialized in reporting on Triad crimes. He was a rash kid but braver than a barrel full of wolverotes, which is what counts in the world of reporting, and he thought he was good with women. Thought’s the key word here. 

At that time, he had been following a lead on a local waterbending assassin gone rogue. The Triads and the cops were both going wild trying to catch the guy, and the kid thought he’d be able to do it. 

But since we all have to take breaks from our work now and then, the kid was at a pro-bending match when he meets this girl. She was beautiful, with eyes the color of the Yue and silk gloves and a red scarf. She told him that she’s heard that he’s looking for the assassin and that she’s got a lead and he has to come with her right now to catch the guy. And the kid, smitten to the boots of his toes and ambitious, agreed.

It turns out the assassin was also at the pro-bending game, so they followed him outside to his Satomobile and followed him on the kid’s moped. They followed him to an old warehouse, at which point the kid found a metal-bender cop and told him what was going on. That night, the cops all broke into the warehouse and made an arrest, then started searching the warehouse. When the girl and the boy left, they were levering a block of ice out of the trunk of the Satomobile. 

To celebrate, the two of them went out on the town. The boy bought the girl a hairpin with a cherry blossom on it since it looked good on her, then asked her to join him to watch the cherries bloom, since it’d be happening in a few days, and gave her a note that told her where he’d be waiting and his name. She said she’d come if she could, and then they kissed. Her lips were cold. And she.

…

When he opened his eyes after the kiss, she was gone. The boy reporter assumed that she’d gone home and went back to his apartment, assuming that they’d meet again in a few days. 

On the day of the cherry blossom watching, he went to the appointed spot and waited and waited until finally, a policeman came and asked him to come to the station. The boy did, and they took him to the morgue to identify a body – the one trapped in the ice of the waterbending assassin’s car.

She had eyes the color of the Yue. Her nails were ripped from where she’d fought her attacker, and her neck was bruised in the shape of fingers. And tucked behind her ear was a cherry blossom hairpin. The cops had known how to find the reporter by the note tucked in her pocket with his name and directions to see him, and the reporter helped arrange her burial and told her family. 

He never reported again. I haven’t heard from him since.

And that’s all for today, folks! Thank you for tuning in for some scary stories from around the city! Stay tuned for some fantastic political satire collected from cafes around town! This is Shiro Shinobi, signing off!

**Author's Note:**

> Originally for the Legend of Korra kink meme. 
> 
> Written before Episode 8. (That awkward moment when the reality of a character is scarier than when you call him a cannibalistic famine spirit.)


End file.
